Rookie tight end Quarless hopes to emulate Finley

~Green Bay Packers rookie tight end Andrew Quarless does not suffer from a lack of confidence.

Asked if he thought he could be as good as teammate Jermichael Finley, Quarless didn’t hesitate: “I think so. Finley’s a great player. Me and him talk about it all the time, just being the best together and taking this league by storm.”

"His body language is getting better," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said. "I think he almost looked like a young deer kind of learning to step with his feet and pumping with his legs. Probably part of it is being comfortable with the play call in the huddle and being more comfortable with the adjustment vs. the different coverage.

Stack the two next to one another and there are a lot of similarities.

Finley is 6-5, 247 pounds. He runs the 40-yard dash in about 4.6 seconds and has a vertical leap of about 27 inches. Quarless is 6-4, 252 pounds. He runs the 40-yard dash in about 4.6 seconds and has a vertical jump of 32 inches.

These two guys are carbon copies of one another, physically. The difference between them is experience and hands.

Finley is in Year 3 of Operation Be a Pro under tight ends coach Ben McAdoo, whose no-nonsense approach and demand for excellence has helped mold him into a team player and budding superstar. Quarless is a freshman finally getting his bearings after wandering aimlessly the first four weeks of training camp.

“We throw a lot at these guys,” McAdoo said. “He does a lot more running, he’s a lot more involved in special teams than he has in the past, so he’s trying to figure that out. He’s developing, and in development there are peaks and valleys.

“In the last week or so, I think he’s been flashing some of that natural ability. But we’re looking for consistency, and that’s the challenge.”